Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) broke away from Rubens with a romantic charm which, in England, was to stimulate a whole generation of 18th century painters. Pupil of Hendrick van Balen, influenced by Caravaggio, he became, from 1617 to 1621, Rubens' right-hand man; he travelled to Genoa, Venice, Rome, Palermo 1621-1627; at Genoa a magnificent series of portraits. At Antwerp from 1627 to 1632 he painted church pictures. 1632 England as court painter to Charles I.

The end of the century saw the decline of this brilliant school of painting.

Holland

The middle class, with its practical turn of mind, encouraged painters to observe and reflect its activities. Portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, scenes of biblical or everyday life were the favourite subjects, while the tradition of individual portraits continued, e.g. Jan Cornelisz. Verspronck (1597-1662). Miereveld, van der Voort and Ravesteyn started the fashion of group portraits (stemming from the 16th-century company pieces) which was developed by Frans Hals (1580/85-1666), pupil of Karel van Mander. His masterpieces are in Haarlem. Frans Hals' pupils, such as Hendrick Pot (1585-1657), Judith Leyster (1609-1660) and her husband Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668), Dirk Hals, brother of Frans (1591-1656), Pieter Codde (c. 1599-1618), made Haarlem one of the great centres of Dutch painting. The portraitist Jan de Bray (c. 1627-1697) was also from Haarlem.

At Delft interest in plein-air lighting and optics appears in the work of Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), the finest of Rembrandt's pupils and the probable master of Vermeer. Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) did his finest work at Delft (1658-1667). Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) reconciled the Dutch objective tradition and the poetic quality brought from Italy by the Romanists. Jakob Vrel, more naive, painted street scenes, and Houckgeest (c. 1600-1661), van Vliet (c. 1611-1675), and Emanuel de Witte (c. 1617-1692) painted church interiors.